PEMBROKESHIRE BIRDS IN 1603. 245 



Salop, in w ch Countreyes yee shall hardlie finde any iij weekes or 

 a moneth after this Countrie ys filled with them : ffurther they 

 come not by one and one, or fewe, but at a soddaine all partes are 

 filled wth them, so that some men of Judgement are of opynion, 

 that they are to be nombred inter animalia imperfecta ; and that 

 they are engendred and raised by the meare Easterlye winde of 

 some substance here in the Countrie ; the like whereof you may 

 reade of diuerse other fowles and other wormes in Plynie.* 



The Plentie of this, and other kinde of fowle hath beene such 

 in a hard wynter, as I haue hard a gentleman of good sort and 

 credytte report that he hath bought in St. Dauids, ij woodcockes, 

 iij snipes, and certayne teales and black byrdes for a peny, and 

 suerly yt will not be beleeved in other places, what penyworthes 

 are hadd of fowle in this Countrye yearely. 



Beside these two kindes of fowle, w ch wee accompte among 

 houshold fare, the countrye yeeldeth great store of other sortes 

 as the mounteines foster, the grouse, heathcocke, which are all- 

 waies in season, and the plover both grey and russett,f the sea 

 clyffes harbour the wylde pygeons, the dove house the tame ; in 

 the bogges breedeth the crane, the byttur,+ the wild ducke, and 

 teale, and diuerse others of that kynde ; on highe trees the 

 heronshewes, the shovler,§ and the woodquistes ; the heronshewes 

 are allso found in many places of the sea clyffes but chiefely on 

 highe and stately trees, to w ch places they are quickely allured 

 by placeing of horsehead bones upon branches of trees, wch will 

 provoke them to like of the place ; where they breede they come 

 in companies, so as you shall haue in some places xij or xvj nestes 

 vpon a tree, they breede iij times in the yeare, if the yonge be 

 taken awaie, otherwise but once, they hatche first about Aprill 

 and Maye, and commonly bringe furth at the first sitting, 4. 

 3 the next, and lastlie. 2 : yonge. 



* For this curious theory of wind-eggs, cf. Varro, ' De Ee Kust.' ii. 1. 

 Virgil (Georg. iii. 275) attributes similar powers to the west wind. 



f The Golden Plover. 



\ This is the old form of the word (from Fr. butor). See ' Faerie 

 Queene,' viii. 50. The Bittern as a breeding species has been improved off 

 the land by modern drainage, and is now only met with in winter. 



§ The Shovelard, or Spoonbill (a wader). Sir Thomas Browne, writing 

 in 1668 ' On Norfolk Birds,' mentions it as common in his time, breeding 

 " formerly at Claxton & Reedham ; now at Trimley in Suffolk." 



